April, 2018

• 3 April

  Extradition of ex-Catalan president sought

  

  BERLIN / Reuters German prosecutors filed a request to a regional court on Tuesday for the extradition of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges of rebellion over the region’s campaign for independence. Puigdemont has been held in a detention centre in the northern German town of Neumuenster for just over a week after he was ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Britain seeks ‘proportionate’ response to Russia

  LONDON / Reuters Britain is looking for a “proportionate way” to respond to the threat posed by Russia, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday, after a retired Russian army official said the poisoning of a former spy could start a new world war. “We need to respond in a proportionate way to this aggressive behaviour from ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Netanyahu scraps African migrant relocation deal

  JERUSALEM / Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was cancelling an agreement with the UN refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants, bowing to right-wing pressure to scrap the deal. Hours after announcing the arrangement, which also would have given thousands of other migrants the right to stay in Israel, Netanyahu posted on his Facebook ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  US stocks would bear the brunt of trade war

  

  Trade-related topics that had been a sleeper have become a front-burner issue for investors. Equity prices and Treasury yields plunged on March 23 after the US announcement of a 25 percent tariff on up to $60 billion of Chinese exports. Over that weekend, both sides expressed interest in reconciling differences and markets reversed path when they opened March 26. If ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Give China’s chipmakers a reason to care

  

  Just as the market’s love for the FANG stocks turns to angst, the US government is looking to ban Chinese investments in its technologies. That’s a bigger problem for the country’s expensive chipmakers than their would-be Asian acquirers. Semiconductors and 5G wireless communications are among areas that would be placed off-limits under plans to invoke a law reserved for national ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Schools in the US should pay teachers what they’re worth

  

  From West Virginia to Arizona, public-school teachers are in revolt. They are demanding better pay, and they deserve it — so long as their salaries are tied to their performance. It’s not that US teachers are underpaid; the median income for the country’s 1 million high-school teachers, for example, is more than 50 percent higher than that of the general ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Duterte’s ace in the hole for Asia’s worst market

  Everyone loves an underdog, unless it’s Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine peso. The Philippines is Asia’s worst stock and currency market this year. A 6 percent slump in the benchmark index combined with a 4.6 percent slide in the peso means US dollar-based investors are looking at double-digit losses. Year-to-date, foreigners pulled more than $580 million from shares, after inflows ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  A good story doesn’t make a great investment idea

  

  The return of volatility in the first quarter versus 2017 was our focus last week. Some interesting pushback followed the premise that prices seem to ignore news sometimes and at other times hang on every headline. My explanation: Most people have this correlation backward. Contrary to widespread belief, the news does not drive markets or prices; rather, it is the ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  More caution can help FB, but it can hurt it, too

  

  There’s a line of thinking that Facebook Inc.’s business won’t be significantly damaged by the company’s series of scandals. But Facebook is already shifting how it operates in ways that will pinch its finances or limit its strategic maneuvers. First, it’s worth noting how little has changed for Facebook investors after two weeks of fury over the company’s role in ...

  Read More »
• 3 April

  Competition for Amazon’s HQ2 becomes more political

  

  The competition for Amazon’s second headquarters is only getting fiercer. The politicking that goes with it ranges from subtle and behind the scenes to brazenly in-your-face. At stake is a destiny-changing bonanza that is a modern-day equivalent of a railroad siting. Amazon’s decision makers are weighing many factors among 20 finalist locations, and only they know how much certain variables ...

  Read More »